Around 900 people have crossed the Gulf Aden to Djibouti in just 10 days (AFP Photo/Tony Karumba)

Yemen – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, continues to
help migrants, including refugees, stranded in Yemen return home, with
its latest voluntary humanitarian return support taking place this week
(04-05/08). One movement left from Hudaydah with 132 Ethiopian migrants
and the second from Aden with 116 Somali refugees.

For three years, the conflict in Yemen has been taking a toll on both
Yemenis and migrants. For migrants, the escalation of violence in
Hudaydah in June meant being stranded in Yemen longer than they wanted
as IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) programming was temporarily
stopped from the city’s port. However, improvement in the security
situation allowed movements from Hudaydah to resume in mid-July.

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IOM transported the 132 Ethiopian migrants – 96 men, 19 women and 17
unaccompanied children, of which 10 were boys and seven girls – by bus
from Sana’a to Hudaydah city, where they spent the night in a secure
location. The next day (04/08), IOM brought the migrants to the port
from which they left to voluntarily return home to Ethiopia via
Djibouti.

Nearly 100,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the ongoing instability
in Hudaydah. To support the displaced community, IOM is providing food
to 500 people a day and medical assistance to 200 people a day.

“Despite the difficult environment in Hudaydah, IOM has been
assisting migrants and the internally displaced population,” said Sarat
Dash, IOM Chief of Mission in Yemen. “IOM is distributing food and water
and providing medical assistance. Meals are being provided at IOM’s
Migrants Response Point and in four schools in Al Marawa. We are also
providing food baskets and materials to build shelters to displaced
people not lucky enough to be hosted in a school,” said Dash.

The day after the Ethiopian movement (05/08), IOM in coordination
with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, helped 116 Somalis refugees depart
from Aden to return home. The group comprised 48 men, 29 women, 19 boys
and 20 girls. This group was assisted through the Assisted Spontaneous
Return programme (ASR) for Somali refugees in Yemen, which is carried
out in close collaboration with the Yemeni Authority, Somali National
Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRI) and the
Somali Consulate.

So far in 2018, IOM has helped 615 stranded migrants return home from
Yemen on IOM’s voluntary humanitarian return (VHR) programme, and 1,321
refugees out of Aden were helped under the Assisted Spontaneous Return
(ASR) programme.